The disclosed embodiments relate generally to touch interfaces and more particularly to improved techniques for operating and configuring a user interface object using touch gestures.
Many of today's computing devices, such as desktop computers, personal computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, mobile phones, and media players can provide a wide range of capabilities. A user of a computing device may request for various enhanced functionalities to be performed, for example, in a software application, by selecting and manipulating user interface elements presented by the software application. With limited screen real estate on the computing devices, the number of user interface elements presentable on the user interface is limited. The user is often required to select and manipulate multiple user interface elements in order to trigger the functionalities provided by an application.
For example, the user may select a user interface element (e.g., a button) in a photo editing application to cause the application to display a thumbnail panel including a series of images. The user may select another user interface element (e.g., another button) in the application to modify a size of the thumbnail panel. In order to configure the size of the thumbnail panel, the user must perform multiple actions by selecting and manipulating multiple user interface elements. For example, the user can configure the size of the thumbnail panel through a series of actions performed in a preferences setting. The configuration can sometimes be unintuitive and cumbersome for the user.